Dementia in Australia

Carers play an important role in providing care for family members and friends with illnesses or disabilities and are pivotal in Australia's health care, aged care, disability and social systems. Carers assist and support with a range of daily activities such as self-care, transport, meal preparation and household chores, as well as provide overall supervision and manage behavioural or medical problems. For carers of people with dementia, the type of support and assistance needed will vary depending on individual circumstances, but the level of care required will increase as the dementia progresses.

This page presents data on the number of carers of people with dementia in Australia as estimated by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). This page also presents information on the characteristics of primary carers of people with dementia, from the 2022 Australian Bureau of Statistics Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC). 

For key carer definitions used in this report see Key definitions used in this report.

For more information on how carer characteristics differ in people from non-English speaking countries, see Culturally and linguistically diverse people with dementia. For information on carers among First Nations people, see First Nations-specific health and aged care programs and caring roles.

Primary carers of people with dementia

This section presents information from the 2022 SDAC on primary carers of people with dementia.

According to the SDAC, in 2022:

• 96,800 people were providing informal care to people with dementia – more than 2 in 3 were primary carers (69%, or 66,500 people; Table S6.2).
• More than 3 in 4 primary carers of people with dementia were females (76%; Table S6.3).  
• Less than 1 in 3 primary carers of people with dementia were aged under 65 (32%).
  • In comparison, 3 in 4 primary carers of people without dementia were aged under 65 (75%; Table S6.4)
• More than half of primary carers were caring for their partner with dementia (57%) (Table S6.5).

Figure 6.1: Primary carers of people with and without dementia in 2022: estimated percentage by sex and age

Motivation to take on the caring role 

Based on the SDAC, in 2022 the most common reasons for primary carers of people with dementia to take on the caring role was:

• family responsibility (57%)
• emotional obligation (49%)
• they could provide better care than someone else (47%)
• no other family or friends were available (28%) or willing (26%).

Primary carers of people with dementia were statistically more likely to report emotional obligation, no other family or friends willing, and could provide better care than someone else as the reasons for taking on the caring role when compared with primary carers of people without dementia (Figure 6.2; Table S6.6).

Figure 6.2: Primary carers of people with and without dementia in 2022: estimated percentage by reason for taking on the caring role

Time spent in the caring role

As dementia progresses, people with the condition require increasing levels of care across all aspects of daily living. This is reflected by the amount of time primary carers of people with dementia spend providing care.

The vast majority (85%) of primary carers of people with dementia provided continuous rather than episodic care, and more than 2 in 5 primary carers of people with dementia were providing an average of 60 or more hours of care per week (42%) (Figure 6.3; Table S6.7). In contrast, the caring intensity was overall lower for primary carers of people without dementia, with 72% providing continuous care and 26% providing on average 60 or more hours of care per week.

Figure 6.3: Primary carers of people with and without dementia in 2022: estimated percentage by average weekly hours spent caring

Primary carers of people with dementia had generally spent a shorter period of time providing care than primary carers of people without dementia. Significantly more primary carers of people without dementia had been caring for 10 years or more (37%) compared to primary carers of people with dementia (23%). (Figure 6.4; Table S6.8).

These differences may be due to the generally late age of onset of dementia, transition into residential aged care for people with dementia when extensive support is required and people with dementia living for a shorter number of years with the diagnosed condition compared to other care recipients without dementia.

Figure 6.4: Primary carers of people with and without dementia in 2022: estimated percentage by years spent caring